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• 
  Elon Musk-backed firm signs Dubai Loop construction deal

  4 February 2026

  Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) has signed an agreement with Elon Musk-backed firm The Boring Company to begin construction of the Dubai Loop transportation system.

  The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in Dubai on 3 February.

  The first phase of the project comprises a 6.4-kilometre (km) route with four stations, linking the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Dubai Mall.

  The stations will be located at DIFC 2, ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai Mall Zabeel Parking and Burj Khalifa.

  The first phase is expected to cost about AED565m ($154m).

  This phase is anticipated to be delivered within one year following the completion of design work and other preparations.

  The tunnelling works are expected to begin in the second half of this year.

  Next phase

  The second phase of the project will connect the Dubai World Trade Centre and DIFC with Business Bay.

  The tunnels will extend up to 22km and include 19 stations.

  The total cost of the project across both phases is expected to be around AED2bn ($545m), with completion scheduled within three years.

  In a statement published by the Emirates News Agency (Wam), the RTA said the pilot route is expected to serve around 13,000 passengers a day. The full route is projected to have a total capacity of about 30,000 passengers a day.

  The RTA and The Boring Company signed a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in Dubai in February last year to explore the development of the Dubai Loop transportation system.

  The Dubai Loop is expected to be similar to The Boring Company’s Las Vegas Convention Centre (LVCC) Loop project. The LVCC Loop is a 2.7km underground tunnel system that connects different convention centre halls, reducing walking time across the site to about two minutes.

  The LVCC Loop has been in operation since 2021. It uses Tesla Model 3 cars to carry passengers between five stations. The Boring Company began construction in November 2019 at an estimated cost of $49m.

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  READ THE FEBRUARY 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Spending on oil and gas production surges; Doha’s efforts support extraordinary growth in 2026; Water sector regains momentum in 2025.

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the February 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA: Mena upstream spending set to soar > AGENDA: Global upstream spending to grow  > INDUSTRY REPORT: MEED's GCC water developer ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT: Pipeline boom lifts Mena water awards > MARKET FOCUS: Qatar’s strategy falls into place > CURRENT AFFAIRS: Iran protests elevate regional uncertainty > CONTRACT AWARDS: Contract awards decline in 2025 > LEADERSHIP: Tomorrow’s communities must heal us, not just house us > INTERVIEW: AtkinsRealis on building faster > PORTS: DP World underpins Dubai’s economic growth strategy > INTERVIEW: Parsons says projects market will show resilience  > LEADERSHIP: Energy security starts with rethinking waste > LEADERSHIP: Why 2026 is a breakthrough year for Middle East construction

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Yasir Iqbal
• 
  Aramco to finalise long-term agreements with engineering firms

  4 February 2026

  

   

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  Saudi Aramco is on course to finalise long-term agreements (LTAs) with prominent energy sector engineering firms, aiming to create a pool of consultants it can engage in future for project study- and design-related requirements.

  The structure of this proposed pool of engineering consultants will be similar to Aramco’s existing general engineering services-plus (GES+) group, which provides project management and engineering services – including concept studies, pre-front-end engineering and design (pre-feed) and feed – to support Aramco’s capital programmes in Saudi Arabia across onshore greenfield and brownfield projects in gas, oil and new-energy infrastructure.

  Aramco also maintains LTA pools with offshore and onshore engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors, and the layout of the planned pool of engineering firms will be akin to those two bodies, sources told MEED.

  According to sources, the following companies, among others, are understood to have submitted proposals to Aramco for the proposed LTA pool of engineering consultants:

  • Bechtel (US)
  • Fluor (US)
  • KBR (US)
  • Wood (UK)
  • Worley (Australia)

  Aramco received proposals from these firms last year and has since held several rounds of “discussions and negotiations” with them, sources said. The Saudi energy giant is now believed to have agreed with the bidders the terms and other aspects on which the proposed LTA engineering pool is to be built, sources added.

  “If all goes to plan, we could see Aramco signing LTAs with the contractors to create the group within the first quarter [of 2026],” one source said.

  While Aramco’s planned engineering LTA pool will be “largely similar” to its GES+ group, sources said a key distinguishing factor will be the ability of consultants in the new pool to bid for, and secure, engineering work for Aramco’s international projects, as well as to execute overseas work for Aramco’s in-kingdom projects.

  The GES+ body, which comprises joint ventures between foreign and local firms, receives tenders from Aramco only for in-kingdom engineering studies. The GES+ pool consists of the following entities:

  • KBR (US) / Abdulhadi & Al-Moaibed Consulting Engineering Company (AMCDE; local)
  • SNC-Lavalin (Canada) / Fayez Engineering (local)
  • Jacobs (US)
  • Worley (Australia)
  • Wood Group (UK) / Faisal Jamel Al-Hejailan Engineering (local) / Dar Al-Riyadh Engineering Consultants (DAR) / Petro-Infrastructure Engineering (PI Consult)
  • Technip Energies (France) / Dar Al-Riyadh Engineering Consultants (local)
  • Bechtel (US) / Arabian Consulting Engineering Centre (local)

  ALSO READ: Aramco picks consultant for New Energies scheme

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  READ THE FEBRUARY 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Spending on oil and gas production surges; Doha’s efforts support extraordinary growth in 2026; Water sector regains momentum in 2025.

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the February 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA: Mena upstream spending set to soar > AGENDA: Global upstream spending to grow  > INDUSTRY REPORT: MEED's GCC water developer ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT: Pipeline boom lifts Mena water awards > MARKET FOCUS: Qatar’s strategy falls into place > CURRENT AFFAIRS: Iran protests elevate regional uncertainty > CONTRACT AWARDS: Contract awards decline in 2025 > LEADERSHIP: Tomorrow’s communities must heal us, not just house us > INTERVIEW: AtkinsRealis on building faster > PORTS: DP World underpins Dubai’s economic growth strategy > INTERVIEW: Parsons says projects market will show resilience  > LEADERSHIP: Energy security starts with rethinking waste > LEADERSHIP: Why 2026 is a breakthrough year for Middle East construction

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Indrajit Sen
• 
  Saudi Arabia extends deadlines for water PPPs

  3 February 2026

  Saudi Arabia’s Water Transmission Company (WTCO) has extended the bid submission deadline for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for two major independent water transmission system projects.

  The Jubail-Buraidah and the Ras Mohaisen-Baha-Mecca transmission projects were first tendered last September under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

  The initial deadlines for qualified contractors to submit technical and financial bids were 1 February and 5 February, respectively.

  The new bid submission deadline for the Jubail-Buraidah project is 8 March.

  Scheduled to begin construction in 2027, the scheme comprises an approximately 348-kilometre-long greenfield water transmission system with a capacity of 840,650 cubic metres a day (cm/d), delivering water from the Ashmasiah reservoirs to cities and towns in Al-Qassim province.

  The project is large by WTCO standards. The company’s second phase of the Khobar-Hofuf system, completed in 2024, was 140km in length, with a capacity exceeding 530,000 cm/d. 

  For the Ras Mohaisen-Baha-Mecca water transmission system project, the new bid submission deadline is 15 March.

  The project involves constructing an approximately 325-kilometre-long greenfield independent water transmission system with a capacity of 542,000 cm/d, delivering water from Ras Mohaisen to the Adham and Aradhiyah regions.

  Prequalification for both projects closed on 15 January.

  It is understood that local firms Alkhorayef Water & Power Technologies and Mutlaq Al-Ghowairi Contracting Company (MGC) are among the firms qualified to bid for the Ras Mohaisen contract.

  Saudi Arabia also has even larger independent water transmission pipeline (IWTP) initiatives under way. One such project, also linking Jubail and Buraidah, spans 587km and carries 650,000 cm/d.

  MGC secured the EPC contract for this project in June last year. 

  It will have a total cost of SR8.5bn ($2.2bn).

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  READ THE FEBRUARY 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Spending on oil and gas production surges; Doha’s efforts support extraordinary growth in 2026; Water sector regains momentum in 2025.

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the February 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA: Mena upstream spending set to soar > AGENDA: Global upstream spending to grow  > INDUSTRY REPORT: MEED's GCC water developer ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT: Pipeline boom lifts Mena water awards > MARKET FOCUS: Qatar’s strategy falls into place > CURRENT AFFAIRS: Iran protests elevate regional uncertainty > CONTRACT AWARDS: Contract awards decline in 2025 > LEADERSHIP: Tomorrow’s communities must heal us, not just house us > INTERVIEW: AtkinsRealis on building faster > PORTS: DP World underpins Dubai’s economic growth strategy > INTERVIEW: Parsons says projects market will show resilience  > LEADERSHIP: Energy security starts with rethinking waste > LEADERSHIP: Why 2026 is a breakthrough year for Middle East construction

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15559028/main.jpg

  Mark Dowdall
• 
  Projects market goes back to basics

  3 February 2026

  Commentary
  Colin Foreman
  Editor

  Read the February issue of MEED Business Review

  The Middle East projects market is recalibrating. After years of ambitious project launches that aimed to transform economies, 2025 marked a turning point as the regional projects market declined.

  According to regional projects tracker MEED Projects, the total value of contract awards in the GCC fell by almost a third in 2025 compared to 2024, as spending in Saudi Arabia halved due to challenges with the gigaprojects

  The slowdown in contract awards has forced a return to basics. With budgets under pressure, project spending is now being allocated more selectively. Projects with clear returns on investment, either financial or social, are the ones now moving into construction and towards completion.

  Upstream oil and gas sits within the back-to-basics narrative. Despite decarbonisation targets and the energy transition, oil remains structurally necessary to the global economy, and Mena producers, with low extraction costs, are uniquely positioned to supply it. 

  The second pillar is gas – both a transition fuel and an enabler of diversification. Reflecting that shift, upstream gas and LNG projects have accounted for close to 60% of total upstream spending in the region since 2020, in a pattern that looks set to continue.

  Both trends explain why upstream project spending has continued to rise this decade — reaching about $51.6bn in 2025, even as Brent has softened from its 2022 highs.

  For contractors and suppliers, the opportunity is huge. MEED Projects is tracking roughly $120bn of upstream schemes that have moved beyond the study phase and are expected to be awarded this year. 

  In a market focused on return on investment, upstream continues to stand out as a prospect for 2026 and beyond.

  ---

  READ THE FEBRUARY 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Spending on oil and gas production surges; Doha’s efforts support extraordinary growth in 2026; Water sector regains momentum in 2025.

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the February 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA: Mena upstream spending set to soar > AGENDA: Global upstream spending to grow  > INDUSTRY REPORT: MEED's GCC water developer ranking > INDUSTRY REPORT: Pipeline boom lifts Mena water awards > MARKET FOCUS: Qatar’s strategy falls into place > CURRENT AFFAIRS: Iran protests elevate regional uncertainty > CONTRACT AWARDS: Contract awards decline in 2025 > LEADERSHIP: Tomorrow’s communities must heal us, not just house us > INTERVIEW: AtkinsRealis on building faster > PORTS: DP World underpins Dubai’s economic growth strategy > INTERVIEW: Parsons says projects market will show resilience  > LEADERSHIP: Energy security starts with rethinking waste > LEADERSHIP: Why 2026 is a breakthrough year for Middle East construction

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

  https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15558470/main.gif

  Colin Foreman
• 
  Qatar heads for a growth surge in 2026

  3 February 2026

  Download the PDF

  

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  MEED’s February 2026 report on Qatar includes:

  > COMMENT: Qatar’s strategy falls into place
  > GVT & ECONOMY: Qatar enters 2026 with heady expectations
  > BANKING: Qatar banks search for growth
  > OIL & GAS: QatarEnergy achieves strategic oil and gas goals in 2025
  > POWER & WATER: Dukhan solar award drives Qatar's utility sector
  > CONSTRUCTION: Infrastructure investments underpin Qatar construction

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  MEED Editorial